


All the way down memory-lane

by MoonshineMadame



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-07-29 12:15:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16264016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonshineMadame/pseuds/MoonshineMadame
Summary: Constance gets herself in a little bit of trouble and surprisingly it is Tammy who can actually help her. Well, not so surprising to her two oldest friends, Debbie and Lou, who know about her little secret...





	All the way down memory-lane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TracyLouiseHeart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TracyLouiseHeart/gifts).



> I had this idea weeks ago, when I first read in TracyLouiseHearts story of little ballerina Lou - thank you so much for letting me borrow that idea! But then I started thinking, what if Lou wasn't the only who used to do something that no one expected? And then my imagination ran wild and came up with...well, this. I wasn't too sure about posting the second part, so maybe I'll rewrite that eventually.  
> Still, Iwould love to hear what you think about it!
> 
> I don't own anything, just the idea :)

The first time Constance came back to the loft with a black eye, Debbie and Lou offered to make the guys life miserable. The second time, Amita was there and offered to take her on a long holiday oversea to get her thoughts off of everything. Both times, Constance declined – it surely wasn’t the first time she got into a fight on the streets and it most certainly wouldn’t be the last.

The third time around though, Lou’s place was empty and with a pitiful sigh, Constance sank into the soft sofa. She just wanted to sit there and not move until the morning.

‘If you take these and let me have a look at that, we might be able to patch you up without anyone being any wiser.’

Not so empty then. Constance slowly opened her eyes to look at Tammy, who didn’t even wait for her answer before sitting down next to her. She had already a huge first aid kit and some small, dark bottles with her and Constance frowned slightly. How did Tammy know what she would need?

But then she flinched in pain and was pulled out of her thoughts when Tammy carefully started to clean the small cut over her eyebrow. Realizing that she didn’t really have a choice in the matter Constance sank back into the pillows and let Tammy do her work. Neither of them said a word until Tammy started putting everything back into the box.

‘You’re really good at this. Patching up people,’ Constance stated but Tammy just shrugged.

‘I’ve got kids – the boys tend to come home covered in bruises.’

‘Bruises like these?’

‘No, not really. But,’ the blonde smiled slightly, ‘I’ve been around Debbie and Lou for a long time. Someone had to make sure they’d be put back together after one of their bar fights.’

At this, Constance gaped at her.

‘Debbie and Lou got into bar fights?’

‘Of course. All the time, really. Not anymore though – we were much younger then, maybe about your age?’

Constance couldn’t help but stare at her – this just sounded too strange! Now, it wasn’t that Constance didn’t know that Debbie and Lou and Tammy had a past, had been young once too – not that they were old but she was by far the youngest member of their group and it just felt odd to imagine those women she respected so much as foolish, will-full youngsters. It was just like the way students tended to see their teachers: They knew that OF COURSE they had a private life, that there was more to them then what they saw during their lessons but unless they were directly confronted with it, they would simply ignore it.

The point was, though, that Debbie and Lou were something else and no one really seemed to know much about them – except for Tammy. But then again, Tammy, Lou and Debbie were another thing entirely and even though Tammy was a little more forthcoming with information about their past it was still something no one shared with the three of them.

But really, this little tidbit was definitely something she would use to tease the two women AND it certainly explained Tammy’s excessive skills when it came to patching up people.

‘…get hit?’

Realizing she had zoomed out again, Constance opened her eyes to look at Tammy.

‘Sorry?’

The blonde rolled her eyes.

‘I asked you what happened. How you got hit like that!’

Constance just shrugged.

‘Dunno, I got into that fight – I always get pulled in and then it’s impossible not to get hit…’

‘Did you manage to punch one of them?’

‘You’re kidding, right?’

Tammy just raised her eyebrows and Constance rolled her eyes.

‘Those guys are huge, they are the beaters for that one gang – broad and strong and – ‘

‘Get up.’

‘What?’

‘Get. Up.’

‘Why?’ Constance asked and frowned at Tammy. The woman’s thoughtful expression from a moment ago had turned into something she couldn’t really pin-point but suspected to be determination. A small smile found its way to Tammy’s lips.

‘Because I’m going to teach you how not to get hit.’

 

The sounds that greeted Debbie and Lou when they walked up to the loft made both Debbie and Lou freeze for a moment – until they heard Tammy’s patient voice explaining something. They gave each other a meaningful look and carefully opened the door to take a peek. What they saw was, well, maybe unexpected, but certainly not shocking. At least not to them though the others on their team would probably think they were dreaming before believing their eyes. This was Tammy, after all.

But that was exactly the problem, Debbie thought. Everyone seemed to think that Tammy was the nicest of them and they were right. Well, Rose was perhaps the most innocent one but when it came to taking care of people, one would always go to Tammy because that was what she did best. And somehow that made everyone believe that there wasn’t much more to her, that she was just the nice fence and nothing more.

Yet here they were, looking at Tammy and Constance in the middle of the room, having what looked like some sort of training fight. At least Tammy was constantly talking to the younger woman while she threw punches at her and Constance seemed to actually have learned something already because she was able to dodge almost every one of them.

‘Constance got into a fight again.’

Lou’s observation pulled Debbie out of her thoughts and she nodded.

‘Looks like Tammy’s patching up skills are still as good as they used to be.’

‘Not only those…’ Lou chuckled. ‘Let’s get the girl a break from her.’

With a small smile Debbie followed her into the main room. The two women immediately stopped when they noticed them and unsurprisingly, Constance seemed quite relieved about the interruption. Tammy didn’t seem to mind and offered to make hot chocolate for everyone because ‘Constance certainly earned it’. The younger woman gave her an incredulous look – HOT CHOCOLATE? Now?

Lou knew where Constance was coming from –she had just seen a side of Tammy she hadn’t even dreamed existed and now she was back to being the woman she knew before, without a trace of anything.

‘Tammy’s hot chocolate is the best, you’ll love it,’ she said and shooed her friend into the kitchen.

As soon as they were alone, Constance sank back into the sofa cushions. She had been exhausted when she got back but Tammy’s impromptu self-defense-lesson had really drained her. Her mind, on the other hand, was wide awake now and still had a hard time comprehending everything.

‘How does she know that stuff? How is she not even out of breath?’ she groaned and Debbie chuckled.

‘She’s doing a lot of…sports. Has always been, so ...’

‘But where did she learn THAT? I had NO idea!’

‘No one does,’ answered Lou and shrugged. ‘She doesn’t really talk about it, mainly because she doesn’t want people to react like you just did. To look at her differently – what? Her words, not mine.’  
Debbie, who had given her a slightly odd look, simply raised her eyebrows at that but didn’t actually say anything. Then she grudgingly nodded.

Tammy, who looked as harmless as a butterfly, was perhaps the most dangerous one of them – and no one would ever expect that. That was indeed handy if they found themselves in a sticky situation, as she very well knew. Lou was right. Even though they probably wouldn’t care the least, it was unlikely that the other women on the team would ever look at Tammy the same way. She herself certainly hadn’t…

Debbie had to fight back a smile when she thought back to that.

 

* * *

 

 

It was the first December in her first year at middle school when her English teacher, Ms. Georgie, had come in with a new girl. She was tiny, probably a year or two younger than them and looked rather sweet and innocent with dirty blonde pigtails and glasses.

Ms. Georgie had given her an encouraging smile and after a moment, the girl stepped up to introduce herself.

‘Hi everyone! I’m Tammy and I just moved here from New Orleans,’ was all she said and then Ms. Georgie ushered her to the empty seat next to Ellen Green so she could start the lesson.

During the next few days Debbie was preoccupied with other things and since she mostly kept to herself anyway, she didn’t see much of the girl Ellen had taken under her wing.

That was until Wednesday.

It all started with their fencing lessons.

Debbie hated fencing with passion, mainly because she was absolutely dreadful at it and not even Danny’s patient lessons could change that. The other reason was Janet Gordon, the winner of the annual fencing tournament ever since first grade and her self-proclaimed archenemy.

And once again, she had made Debbie’s blood boil with her pointed comments and mean remarks, so Debbie had shot back angrily which – like always – resulted in a challenge for a bout she HAD to accept.

And then Tammy swept in.

She had marched right up to Janet, hands on her hips, and glared at the girl and her friends.

‘You really aren’t a nice person, are you, Janet?’ she asked, her eyes sparkling.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You know perfectly well that Debbie can’t win against you alone – can’t you find someone your own size to bully?’

Now Janet gaped at her, outraged. NO ONE spoke to her like that! She seemed to be boiling with anger and was now glaring at Tammy.

‘What are you suggesting, Parks?’ she hissed but Tammy just shrugged nonchalantly.

‘Just what I said. Stop being mean to Debbie.’

‘Well,’ an evil grin spread across Janet’s face, ‘if you don’t want me to fence against Debbie, I need a new partner. Would you volunteer, Parks?’

‘ _Tammy_ ,’ whispered worriedly but the other girl ignored her. Instead, she took a step towards Janet and looked up to her.

‘Challenge accepted.’

And then she turned around abruptly, grabbed Debbie’s arm and pulled her towards the changing rooms. Janet and her friends were left behind, speechlessly gaping after them.

‘Tammy,’ Debbie started again as soon as they couldn’t hear them anymore, ‘you didn’t…why did you do this? You don’t know…Janet, she’s, like, really good!’

Little Tammy smirked.

‘So am I.’

Debbie stared at her and frowned. How was it that this girl was so damn self-confident and able to stand up to the people Debbie had struggled with her entire life? She sighed.

‘Why are you doing this?’

‘Doing what?’

‘Being nice to me.’

Tammy shrugged. ‘Because Janet is mean and I don’t like mean people and those other girls just follow her around and they are all so…flippant and annoying! You seem nice, though.’

She shrugged once again and motioned for Debbie to help her with the uniform. She wordlessly handed her the jacket, taken aback by the other girl’s honesty. Finally, she had found someone who thought about the other girls in their class like she did! She had been very wrong to think that Tammy was just like them!

Slowly, a smile crept across her lips and she beamed at the younger girl.

‘Thank you, for everything. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you out there – Janet really is good, you know?’

‘Don’t worry, Debbie! I know what I’m doing, I really do! Oh, I think they are looking for us! Let’s go!’ And with that, she grabbed her helmet and Debbie’s hand and pulled her back into the gym.

Mr. Marsh, their teacher, was already waiting for them and took Tammy – who still held Debbie’s hand and pulled her along – aside the moment they entered.

‘Miss Parks, are you sure you don’t want to sit out and watch today? Learn some more about your new mates?’

Tammy violently shook her head.

‘No way, Mr. Marsh! I love fencing – and you know, during a real tourney you don’t always get to see your competition either – really, I’ll be just fine, Mr. Marsh!’

He sighed but then he gave in and nodded.

‘If you insist.’ Tammy’s enthusiastic nod made her pigtails jump up and down. ‘Well, then you go over there and prepare yourself.’

In the first phrase, Tammy seemed somewhat less confident than before. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, Debbie realized as she watched her new friend. She didn’t attack Janet once but instead opted to dodge and parry until Janet landed the first touch.

‘Afraid, Parks?’ Janet asked when they assumed their positions again but Tammy shook her head.

‘Of you? Never. For you? Maybe.’

And then they began again and Janet opened with an attack – and beeped because Tammy had been faster and already landed a touch.

Debbie looked around and found her own surprise and confusion mirrored on all the faces around her. She had never heard of that move Tammy just made but she had somehow made it look ridiculously easy.

The third phrase lasted a little longer but ended in a similar fashion and by the time Janet took her third touch and consequently lost, everyone was deeply impressed with the new girl. In that last phrase, Janet had changed her tactic but Tammy seemed to somehow have expected that and it was crystal clear that she would win. For Janet, who had never in her entire life lost a bout before, this was the most embarrassing and infuriating thing and thankfully it opened some of the other girls’ eyes and they stopped following her around.

The best thing, though, was that later that day Tammy went to Ms. Georgie and asked whether she could move to sit next to Debbie. And from then on, they two of them were glued together.

 

* * *

 

 

‘What are you thinking about?’ Tammy’s voice pulled Debbie back to reality. Her oldest friend just came back into the living room, carrying a tray with four steaming mugs in front of her.

Debbie smiled and shrugged.

‘I thought about the day we became friends.’

‘Oh.’

Tammy’s answer – or the lack thereof – made Constance frown slightly because judging by Debbie’s and Lou’s grins, there was some sort of a story. And was Tammy blushing? Well, that really must be one hell of a story!

They were silent for a moment, all sitting there sipping their hot chocolate – Lou had been right, it was delicious – and everyone seemed to be deep in thought. Constance, for her part, was trying to imagine how Tammy and Debbie met and her ideas got more and more absurd every minute, while the three women were thinking of, well something similar. Tammy was replaying that first time she had met Debbie but the other two had already skipped forward, to the day they ran into Lou.

‘I have to go home in the morning, Ben has to go away for work until Wednesday but when I come back, I could teach you a bit more, Constance.’

The young woman beamed at Tammy and nodded.

‘That’d be great, I think!’

Tammy smiled but then her expression got serious again.

‘Try not to get into any fights till then, okay?’

‘I’ll try, promise.’

‘Good – there wouldn’t be anyone here to put you back together after all!’

‘Hey!’ Debbie protested immediately, ‘I do know how patch someone up again!’

Tammy snorted.

‘Yeah, because that ended so well the last time,’ she said sarcastically.

‘I was what? Twenty? And besides, Lou took care of you alright after that.’

‘Leave me out of it, I barely knew you back then!’

They were just teasing each other, Constance realized. But still, whatever happened there, it sounded awfully interesting to her.

To be fair, the story wasn’t a bad one either.

 

* * *

 

 

Debbie and Tammy had just started their senior year at College and had decided to check out the new club downtown. There they met with the latest addition to their little team: Lou, who had arrived from Australia at the beginning of the summer.

They had met when Debbie had literally ran into her when she was shoplifting – and so was Lou. That, Debbie had decided, meant that she should trust fate and keep in touch with the blonde.  
Over the next few weeks, she and Tammy had included Lou in several smaller things and quickly realized that she fit into their dynamics perfectly, as if she had never belonged anywhere else.  
While the other two were at College, Lou was working at a Catering Company, so her time off was a bit limited but she had managed to meet them that night.

The new club wasn’t bad but also not as good as everyone had been saying. Still, they had fun and actually managed to nick some jewelry and other small things they could smuggle out in their little purses.

Everything was fine, until they left.

The club wasn’t on a main street so to get to a station, one had to walk through several rather dark alleys and while they weren’t really afraid, all of them were slightly anxious to get out of there. They hadn’t come very far when a couple of young men, boys really, around their own age, stepped in front of them.

‘Well there, ladies. Now, give us your money and you can go home without any trouble,’ one of them snarled and reached towards their bags. Debbie froze, to surprised to react and Lou was to shocked to move as well. She could, however, see Tammy move slightly, shift to what Lou though was a defensive stance in material arts. _Oh Tammy_ , she thought, _I don’t think a little judo will do you any good now._

‘We won’t give you anything. Get out of our way.’ Debbie’s words made Lou cringe internally, she didn’t know her or Tammy that well but she was pretty sure that the three of them didn’t have a chance against five big guys. Not that she wouldn’t try, if it came to it, but really, she couldn’t see how this was going to end well for them.

It actually seemed like their situation was getting worse because naturally, Debbie’s words made the guy angry. How dare she demand something like that? With a nod of the leader, three of the guys stepped forward.

‘Make sure you hold her tight,’ he said to one who moved towards Lou. One of them had already grabbed Debbie, who was struggling against his grasp and the third one had put his hands on Tammy’s shoulders. She stood perfectly still, frozen and with wide eyes – she was no threat to them. Lou however, with her leather jacket and ripped jeans, definitely looked like trouble.

When the man grabbed her arms, she tried to free herself but it was no use – he was big and bulky and while she had her fair share of fights with boys, they rarely were of this caliber. When he twisted her left arm rather painfully, Lou tried to relax and stop moving – she knew how to pick her fights. A quick glance to Tammy told her that the younger woman seemed to think so as well – or maybe she was just petrified – but when her eyes fell on Debbie, she knew her other friend was not so sensible.

Debbie was still trying to keep the guy from grabbing her purse but she was obviously fighting a lost battle.

‘Do you even know who I am?’, she hissed at the group’s leader. He just laughed and finally managed to grab her purse.

‘What do I care?’

Debbie just glared at him.

‘I am an Ocean,’ she said, her voice like ice. To her surprise, the guy didn’t react though the one who was still standing next to him seemed to get a little worried at the name.

‘Just let them go,’ he said, apparently anxious and Lou briefly wondered why Debbie’s last name would have that effect. Then again, she hadn’t been in the states very long so perhaps that was why she didn’t know.

Suddenly, completely unexpected, the hands on Lou’s arms disappeared. She whipped around – and stared at Tammy.

Tiny, little Tammy who had felled her own attacker as well as Lou’s without so much as a noise while everyone was focusing on Debbie. She put a finger on her lips, as if she needed to tell Lou to be quiet. Then she stepped around her and behind the leader’s lackey. And then she just…tapped his shoulder.

He whipped around and yelped in surprise when the most innocent looking of the three girls threw a series of punches at him that made him stumble back several paces. By then, the leader had finally realized that something was going on and upon seeing the scene before him, he snapped. He threw himself at Tammy as well, who barely managed to hold both him and his other companion of.

Meanwhile, Lou had rushed towards Debbie and together they managed to free her from the man who was still holding her. Debbie slammed the heel of her stiletto down on his foot and he howled in pain as he sank to the ground.

The two of them didn’t even give him another look and rushed to Tammy’s side. Lou crowned the leader with Debbie’s clutch that she had picked up from the ground and briefly wondered what exactly was in there if it was heavy enough to knock someone out. Then she turned around again, just in time to catch Tammy, who had taken a hit that had made her black out. It was Debbie who took care of the last guy, by punching him so hard that Lou could hear his nose crack.

She gave Lou a tight smile and then put her arm around Tammy so they were both holding her up somehow. As soon as they passed a phone box, Lou took over Tammy again while Debbie called them a taxi.

When Tammy woke up, she felt as if she had been run over by a bus. Groaning, she got up and stumbled into the bathroom – she looked terrible was her conclusion when she saw herself in the mirror.

‘Remind me to never let you get mad at me.’

She whipped around to stare at Lou, who was casually leaning against the doorframe. A bad idea because she immediately felt a little dizzy and would have probably lost her balance if it hadn’t been for Lou.

‘Whoa, slow down, Tam. You took a bad blow last night.’

Tammy just shrugged as she let Lou help her back into her bedroom.

‘I’ve had worse,’ she said nonchalantly, not really thinking about it. But Lou did, for she stared disbelievingly at her.

‘You’re joking, right?’

Tammy looked up to her.

‘No, I’m not, actually. My grandmother was a material arts teacher, she spent a lot of time in Asia when she was young and as soon as I could walk, she started teaching me.’

Lou shook her head, still not really sure what to think of that. Then she snorted.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing – it’s just so ironic, you know? You and me – we look...you look like you had etiquette-training and ballet-lessons all your life and people expect me to be the one who's dangerous. But it actually is the other way around.’

Now it was Tammy’s turn to stare disbelievingly.

‘You did Ballet?’

‘Yes – I was quite good, actually. I even got into the famous ballet school in Sydney, that’s where I did my College degree.’

‘I would have never guessed – why did you stop?’

Lou shrugged, suddenly a little uncomfortable. She still didn’t know Tammy that well, after all.

‘There was an incident and I got kicked out of the ballet classes just before the last term. They let me stay to finish school, though.’

‘Oh.’

‘It’s fine – are you feeling better now?’ Lou changed the subject and Tammy nodded.

‘I think so. Did you or Debbie do this?’ She pointed at the clipped cut across her cheek.

‘Debbie.’

‘Of course. Could you do me a favor and get me the first aid kit and a mirror?’

‘Sure.’

A few minutes later, Lou had removed Debbie’s artwork from Tammy’s cheek and put it on again – just the way Tammy instructed her to. Thankfully, this seemed to be the worst they got from last night as neither she herself nor Debbie got more than a few scratches and harmless bruises.

‘Where is Debbie anyway?’

‘Oh, she left while you were still asleep this morning,’ explained Lou. ‘She said she had to tell her family about last night – whatever that means.’

And so Lou got an elaborate explanation as to who exactly the oceans were from Tammy and by the time Debbie came back, everyone was happy and laughing again. Also, from then on they were a trio instead of a duo, and they would stay so for the next couple of years.

 

* * *

 

 

On Thursday, Tammy came back to the loft and Constance was awaiting her anxiously. This time, she was prepared for their lesson and dressed in comfortable clothes, just like Tammy had instructed her to. Who would have guessed it, but she actually had fun. Tammy, it turned out, was a great teacher and Constance felt like she actually learned a lot in just a single lesson. They decided to have their little training sessions, as Tammy called them, whenever she was in the City and sometimes, Lou joined them.

The first time, Constance had been surprised by her presence but it quickly turned out that she had done this with Tammy long before Constance had demanded her attention. She was just as graceful as Tammy but in a weird way that somehow reminded Constance of a dancer. But she quickly let go of that notion, that really was ridiculous.

Apart from the three of them and Debbie, no one seemed to know about their little sessions, which made sense after Constance thought about it. Lou had, after all, told her that Tammy didn’t really want her ‘little secret’ to be known. So she just shrugged when Amita asked her again where she had disappeared once again.

Only once, they were having their monthly ‘family dinner’ (Daphne’s idea), when Amita casually asked if she had run into trouble again in the streets, did Constance share a secret smile with Tammy before declining.

And then, one day, she came to the loft with a bright smile plastered on her face.

‘What’s wrong with you today, kid?’ was Lou’s question but Constance just beamed at Tammy.

‘Last night I managed to hit someone without getting hit myself!’

And at that, Tammy beamed as well and Lou shared a small smile with Debbie.

It seemed that everyone was fine now.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I offended no one - what I know about fencing is from wikipedia, so if you see something that is very wrong, feel free to correct me :)  
> It's the same for material arts and fighting in general!


End file.
